Article contents
From desire to encounter: the human quest for the infinite
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2018
Abstract
The article begins with the journey towards knowledge of the infinite that is traced out in Descartes's Meditations. Drawing on Levinas's construal of the argument in the Third Meditation, I argue that Descartes's reflections on God as infinite can be a starting point for deepening our understanding of the religious quest – the paradoxical human search for that which, by its very nature, is incomprehensible to the human mind. The second half of the article argues that this search is from first to last structured by desire and longing, and that something prima facie non-cognitive and non-epistemic, namely the desire for God, has a cognitive and epistemic role to play. Perhaps desire can be our human way, or a human way, whereby we can (in Descartes's words) ‘in a certain manner attain to’ the infinite perfection that is God.
- Type
- Original Article
- Information
- Religious Studies , Volume 55 , Special Issue 3: Religious Experience and Desire , September 2019 , pp. 375 - 388
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018
References
- 1
- Cited by